As much as anything, the people who care about St. John’s basketball –and as the past few weeks have shown, their legion is still substantial and passionate — want to matter again. They want the Red Storm to be relevant again.

They have gotten a taste of what it is like to be a part of the New York conversation again in the past few weeks, and it feels as good as it ever did.

Sure, it is better when the interest is because of the basketball and not because of a coaching search. But buzz is buzz. Chatter is chatter. Relevance is relevance.

Steve Lavin makes St. John’s matter again. This is not to say that he will automatically usher in a new golden age on Utopia Parkway, or that he is the perfect hire, or that he is a sure thing.

But, really, those are other worries for other days.

For now, he is as good a hire as St. John’s athletic director Chris Monasch could possibly have made — and, in truth, that includes the two men who were previously approached, Billy Donovan and Paul Hewitt, and certainly includes Al Skinner, the Boston College coach Monasch interviewed last weekend.

Lavin comes with a track record. He comes with a history of success, and a string of players he recruited to UCLA who have thrived in the NBA. He comes with an engaging personality that is sure to play well among the various factions of New York City in which he will now have to immerse himself.

He is smart enough to come armed with a staff that will run recruiting interference in the city — with a list of possibilities reported to include Manhattan coach Barry Rohrsson, and former Virginia coach Dave Leitao. And he is still young enough that he will bring the kind of energy needed to restore and resuscitate St. John’s.

It is possible there is a better candidate among the pile of mid-major coaches to which Monasch would certainly have had to return if talks with Lavin broke down. But finding him would have taken time, and a leap of faith, and the kind of reversal of fortune that St. John’s hasn’t been lucky with in its past few hires.

Lavin brings name recognition, brings credibility and makes St. John’s interesting again, at the very least. At the very most? He allows Johnnies fans to dream again.

Does he come with issues? Sure. For all the Sweet 16s Lavin produced, within three years of exiling him and bringing in Ben Howland, UCLA found itself in three straight Final Fours, which would offer an indictment of Lavin’s Xs-and-Os acumen. And for all the rich recruiting classes Lavin landed, it is always important to remember that recruiting to UCLA isn’t exactly the same challenge as recruiting to St. John’s.

UCLA recruits for UCLA. Lavin, at the end of the day, will have to be the one who brings kids to St. John’s.

Can he? In the end, for Monasch, it was worth taking the shot, a smarter hire than favored son Mark Jackson — who really should think about getting some experience if he ever really wants to break into the coaching business — and a lower risk than Cornell’s Steve Donahue or Skinner or Rhode Island’s Jim Baron.

St. John’s isn’t UCLA, and that isn’t necessarily a bad thing. There, they demand championships and nothing else matters.

Here, for now, they simply crave relevance, and a reason to believe. Now they have both, for the first time in a long, long time.